elf, paid a call on Mr Wyatt, boatbuilder.

"I found a new customer for you this afternoon," he announced, winking
mysteriously. "If Cap'n Hunken should call along you'll know what I
mean."

On his homeward road the industrious man had a stroke of good luck.
He espied Captain Hocken, and made haste to overtake him.

"Good evenin', Cap'n Cai!"

"Ah--Mr Philp? Good evenin' to 'ee."

"It's like a providence my meetin' you; for as it chances you was the
last man in my mind. I happened down to Wyatt's yard just now, and--if
you'll believe me--there's reason to believe he'll get an order
to-morrow for another 14-footer,"

"Ay? . . . What for?"

"Why, to enter for the cup you're givin' on Whit-Monday."

"You're mistaken," said Cai. "'Tis Mrs Bosenna that's givin' the cup,
not I."

"What? With her own hands?"

"_To_ be sure. Why not?"

"Then that accounts for it," said Mr Philp gleefully, rubbing his hands.
"He's a deep one, is your friend Hunken! It did strike me as odd, too--
his givin' an order to Wyatt in all this hurry: but now I understand."

"Drat the man! what _is_ it you understand?"

"Why, as you know, Wyatt can knock him a shell together that'll win the
race under everybody's nose. 'Tis a child's play, if you don't mind
castin' the boat next day an' content yourself with scantlin' like a
packin' case. At least, 'twould be child's play to any one but Wyatt,
who can't help buildin' solid, to save his life. If the man had
consulted me, I'd have recommended Mitchell. Mitchell never had a
length o' seasoned wood in his store: he can't afford the capital.
But to my mind he can--take him as a workman--shape a boat better than
Wyatt ever did yet."

"And to mine," Cai agreed.

"The cunning of it, too! He to take the prize from her under your nose
and you standin' by and lookin' foolish. For, let alone the craft, they
say Cap'n Hunken can handle a small boat to beat any man in this
harbour. He cleared a whole prize-list out in Barbadoes, I've heard."

"What, 'Bias? Don't you be afraid. He can't steer a small boat for
nuts."

"Dear me! Then I must have been misinformed, indeed."

"You have been," Cai assured him. "I reckon Mitchell can knock up a
boat to give fits to anything of Wyatt's; and if 'Bias--if Cap'n Hunken
is countin' on Wyatt to help him put the fool on me, it may happen he'll
learn better."

CHAPTER XXIII.

PASSAGE REGATTA.

"'Tis good to wear a bit of colour a